“At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go, disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there — the one who told me I would be king over this people. Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.””
(1Kings 14:1-3NIV)
We have in the bible the story of King Jeroboam, the first king of the northern nation of Israel, that is, after God had divided the nation into two. This man was ordained to be king by God Himself. And He did this through the hand of His prophet, Ahijah (1Kings 11:29-39). But as soon as this man became king and was firmly established, he created new gods for the people and also personally ordained priests to serve them. Why did he do that? Was it because he did not believe in God, the one who ordained him king? No! Rather, it was because he was desperately trying to keep a kingdom that he did not give himself. (Cf. 1Kings 12:25-33)
And how many people are like Jeroboam today, who, in their attempt to keep or protect certain things that God has freely given them, get involved in all kinds of dangerous and harmful things. I am talking about people who get involved in sexual immorality, sorcery, theft, cultism or any other ungodly practice that they know is totally wrong for them, just because they want to keep a job, a position, a marriage or a facility. When all has been said and done, all such people will terribly have themselves to blame.
In any case, as the account of King Jeroboam goes, when one of his sons became very sick to the point of death and he again desperately needed to know what would become of him, he did not turn to gods he created or to the priests he ordained. Instead, as we see in our opening bible text, he turned to the living God, the one who ordained him in the very first place. But why did he not go to his own gods and priests? It was because he knew that they were all fake, for he was the one that created them.
How terrible! This man knew all along that the religion he established for his entire country was fake and lacked any capacity to bless anybody. Yet he manipulated the people to embrace it. And they too foolishly followed him. But when he needed real help for his son, he secretly sent his wife to the right person that could help. And how did God respond to that? He responded by bringing judgment and destruction on Jeroboam and the whole house of Israel that followed him in his nonsense. (Cf. 1Kings 14:5-18)
Now what does all this teach us? Two things! And the first is that it is dangerous to deliberately ignore or supress the truth for any reason. That is because we won’t be the only ones suffering for doing so – all the people that are misled or misguided because of our lies will suffer as well. And that in itself will make things much worse for us, when God is ready to judge (Luke 7:1-3). So, before you create that lie that you call a religion, an organisation or a concept, think well.
The second thing the account teaches us is to be careful how we follow people, even those who possess some legitimate or God-established authority over us. It was God that ordained Jeroboam to lead the nation of Israel. Yet he deliberately misled the people. So, the fact that someone is anointed or is authorised by God to lead you does not mean that he cannot deliberately or ignorantly mislead you. And once you are misled, the consequences will surely follow. This is why you need to take Paul’s words very seriously, which say, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” In other words, we are permitted to follow people, regardless of who they are to us or how highly we revere them, only to the degree that they are obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In any area in which they are not obedient to Him, we are not under any obligation to follow them. Otherwise, though they will be punished for misleading us, we too will not be held guiltless for allowing ourselves to be misled. (Cf. Deut 13; 1Cor 11:1)
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By: J.O. Lawal | Date: September 09, 2020 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 3, No. 17